Escalating attacks on bridges, roads and other civilian infrastructure in Sudan are disrupting humanitarian access and putting civilians at further risk, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Ahead of World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June, the UN is urging governments and communities to accelerate efforts to end a crisis that still affects millions of children worldwide.

Lebanon has suffered more than $365 million in damage to buildings across Beirut and Mount Lebanon since the latest escalation, according to a new UN-led assessment released on Tuesday, as fresh strikes in Tyre underscored the fragility of a ceasefire that has failed to stop the fighting.

Historical gains have been hard-won, but much more needs to be done to advance progress in realising promises made two decades ago, said the UN chief at the opening on Tuesday of the 19th global meeting on the rights of persons with disabilities at UN Headquarters.

Palestinian civilians are trapped between escalating settler violence in the occupied West Bank and fear-based Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, investigators appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said on Tuesday in a new report.

The Security Council meets this morning to discuss the situation in Central Africa, including efforts to combat the so-called Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), one of the region’s longest-running security threats, responsible for over 100,000 deaths, the UN estimates. Ambassadors have been briefed by the regional office (UNOCA) and its strategy for improving civilian protection, humanitarian access and cross-border cooperation.

In Ebola-stricken eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) a massive push for early testing and contact tracing is helping to contain the virus, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

The top UN aid official in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is in Ituri province – the epicentre of the country's Ebola outbreak – for a three-day assessment visit, as the confirmed case count reaches 515 across three eastern provinces.

As the Security Council met on Afghanistan, senior officials and civil society representatives delivered a clear warning Monday: despite relative security under the Taliban, worsening humanitarian conditions, restrictions on women and growing economic pressures are creating a fragile and uncertain future. 

The Security Council met on Monday amid a sharp escalation in hostilities across Ukraine, where UN officials warned that the war has reached its deadliest point since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Briefing members, Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for political affairs, said recent months had seen some of the most extensive aerial attacks of the conflict, while the humanitarian toll on civilians continued to mount on both sides of the front line.

The United Nations climate chief called on Monday for countries to step up action to implement existing commitments, warning that fossil fuel dependency is deepening economic instability and exposing vulnerable communities to worsening climate impacts. 

From peacekeepers to math teachers, 136 UN personnel who lost their lives in the line of duty in 2025 were commemorated on Monday morning in an annual service hosted by the Secretary-General.

A powerful earthquake struck the southern Philippine island of Mindanao on Monday morning just as millions of children were returning to school after the summer break.

Children are dying because doctors cannot access essential medicines, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said in a stark warning on Monday, calling for the immediate lifting of United States sanctions against the Caribbean nation that were causing “widespread harm”.

Plastic pollution is choking the ocean, but sustainable alternatives - including seaweed - remain held back by tariffs, fragmented regulations and the overwhelming market advantage enjoyed by fossil fuel-based plastics. 

The ocean covers more than 70 per cent of the planet and regulates climate, sustains biodiversity, and supports economies and cultures worldwide. It’s the foundation of life on Earth.

Night has fallen over the town of Zémio, in the east of the Central African Republic. In a few hours, the December 2025 presidential election is due to take place, but the rebels of the “Azande Ani Kpi Gbe” (AAKG) militia have launched an offensive to seize the city and derail the polls.

From surgical gloves to water bottles, shopping bags and chewing gum, every part of our daily lives includes plastic. They epitomise convenience – their durability makes our dependence on them inextricable, but it also stifles the environment.

When US and Israeli forces launched strikes on Iran on 28 February, triggering one of the most serious geopolitical crises in years, the Strait of Hormuz – a narrow channel just 34 kilometres wide at its narrowest point – became a global flashpoint overnight.

Months of fighting and insecurity have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in South Sudan’s eastern Jonglei State, triggering “one of the most severe conflict-related displacement emergencies in recent years”, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday.